Extra helpings by John Koski: Khoo-la-la!

The hottest new name in the kitchen right now is a young Englishwoman whose unique French restaurant attracted customers from all over the world to experience dining at its most intimate – and she has written a book to show us how to do it

The most exclusive restaurant in Paris last year wasn’t some intimidating Michelin-starred eatery, but a tiny little place run by an enterprising art college graduate from Croydon. Rachel Khoo, 31, who studied at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, moved to the French capital six years ago to do a posh patisserie course and fell in love with the city. At the end of 2010, she set up The Little Paris Kitchen in her ‘falling apart’ studio apartment, offering lunch on Wednesdays and Saturdays for just two diners.

Her customers were there to test recipes for her new cookbook, and the prix fixe covered the cost of ingredients and wine. Rachel put the word out on social media, and ended up with guests from around the world happy to pay 30 euros a head for the experience.

Luckily, there were no horror stories and, 15 months after opening for business, Rachel has delivered a très jolie book of French classics with occasional modern twists, plus an accompanying TV series about cooking and eating in Paris. The Little Paris Kitchen is now closed, job done, although Rachel hasn’t ruled out reopening it in the future. Here she tells us about her food and la vie parisienne.

You don’t need a fancy kitchen to cook amazing French food. I have two gas rings, a really small oven, my fridge is in my living space, and I was able to make all 120 recipes in the book.

The one thing Parisians queue for is good quality food. If you go to a Parisian market and want to be sure of buying the best, just look for the biggest queue.

I’m definitely a city girl, but for me London is too big. Paris is a lot more laid-back. What other capital city closes down for the whole of August, including Berthillon, the city’s most famous ice-cream shop?

Wine bars serving French tapas are a really exciting trend. I recommend Au Passage (aupassage.com) or Frenchie (frenchie-restaurant.com), run by a guy who used to be head chef at Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant in London.

Falling in love with Frenchmen isn’t worth it. They’re charming and romantic, but too flirty. You can’t afford to be the jealous type if you date a Frenchman. Maybe I’m stereotyping, but it’s true of the ones I’ve dated. I need someone a bit more reliable.

My food background is very mixed. My dad’s Malay-Chinese and came to the UK to study, where he met my mum, who’s Austrian and worked as an au pair. During the week we’d have rendang curry and stir-fries, with the occasional wiener schnitzel, and traditional roast on Sunday.

My signature dish is probably my version of coq au vin. All the traditional ingredients are there – chicken, bacon, potato, carrots, mushrooms – but they are threaded on to skewers, barbecued and served with a red wine dipping sauce.

My most memorable meal isn’t French. Wonton mee – dumplings with noodles and special Chinese pork – goes back to my Asian heritage. I have it at a rundown place in Kuala Lumpur when I go there to see my father’s family.

My ideal dinner party? It would have to be one where I had a kitchen porter to do all the washing-up. I don’t mind the cooking, but the dishes are a nightmare. To eat I’d make something I can leave to simmer away for hours and don’t need to worry about.Rachel in Paris: ‘For the fashion-conscious, the arrival of spring in Paris means that it’s out with the winter wardrobe and in with the spring one. The same goes for stews. Forget your winter boeuf bourguignon – it’s so last season! Navarin printanier, a lamb stew with fresh vegetables, is what should be bubbling away in your kitchen’

Spring lamb stew (NAVARIN D’AGNEAU PRINTANIER)

SERVES 4-6

1kg • 2¼ lb lamb neck cut into six pieces

2 cloves of garlic peeled and crushed toa paste

1 onion peeled and finely chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

1 bay leaf

2 sprigs of thyme

4 carrots cut into chunks

100g • 3½ oz fresh or frozen peas

100g • 3½ oz green beans chopped

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Brown the meat, garlic and onion with the olive oil in a large flameproof casserole with a lid. Add the bay leaf, thyme and carrots, and enough water to cover the meat by at least a couple of centimetres (about an inch). Bring to a simmer and remove any scum that rises to the top. Once all the scum is removed, cover the pan and transfer to the oven. Cook for 1½ -2 hours or until the meat is tender.

Ten minutes before serving, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the peas and beans. Cook for 5 minutes or until the vegetables are tender, then drain.

Take the casserole out of the oven and remove the bay leaf and sprigs of thyme. Add the peas and beans to the lamb with salt and pepper to taste, and serve straight away.

FOR AN ENGLISH TWIST Serve the stew with some mint sauce.

Caramel- topped custard (CREME BRULEE)On my first trip to Paris I ordered a crème brûlée and it tasted awful. In my virtually non-existent French, I tried in vain to complain to the waiter that it tasted burned, only for him to retort that it was crème brûlée and meant to be burned. Fortunately now my French is good enough to explain that crème brûlée is a rich custard topped with a hard caramel. Not a burned caramel.

The classic crème brûlée is just cream, egg yolks, sugar and vanilla but I use a combination of cream and milk, which makes a rich custard without the heaviness of using only cream. In summer I often put a small handful of raspberries or blueberries (or a few halved strawberries) into the bottom of each ramekin before completely submerging them in the custard.

MAKES 6

300ml double cream

200ml milk

1 vanilla pod

6 egg yolks

100g sugar

For the caramel topping

30g caster sugar

30g raw cane sugar

Pour the cream and milk into a pan. Split the vanilla pod in half lengthways and scrape out the grains. Add the pod and grains to the cream and milk. Bring to a boil, turn off the heat and remove the pod from the pan.

Combine the egg yolks with the sugar in a bowl, then slowly pour in the hot cream and milk, whisking continuously. Do not over-whisk as you want to avoid creating too many bubbles.

If you have time, pour the custard into a bowl, cover with cling film and refrigerate overnight. This gives the vanilla grains more time to flavour the cream and milk.

Preheat the oven to 110C. Divide the custard between 6 wide, shallow ramekins and place in a roasting tin. Pour cold water into the tin to come halfway up the ramekins. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the custard is set around the edges but still slightly wobbly in the middle. Remove the ramekins from the water and set aside until cooled to room temperature. Cover the ramekins with cling film (don’t let it touch the custard), and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight.

When ready to serve, make the caramel topping. Uncover the ramekins and check to see if condensation has collected on the custards. If it has, gently place paper towels on the surface to soak up the moisture. Mix the two types of sugar together and sprinkle a nice even layer over each custard. Do this by holding the spoon at least 30cm away from the ramekin - sprinkling from a height is the best way to create an even layer of sugar. Place the ramekins on a metal tray. For best results, use a hand-held cooks’ blowtorch and hold it 10-12cm away from the sugar. Move the flame slowly around the sugar, maintaining a slow and even motion. Stop torching just before the desired degree of caramelization is reached, as the sugar will continue to cook for a few seconds after the flame has been removed.

Tips• The custard can be made up to four days in advance, but the caramel topping has to be done just before serving. Caramel becomes soft with time, due to the humidity in the air.• You need wide, shallow ramekins to get a high caramel to custard ratio, which is key for a successful crème brûlée.• If you’re not using the leftover egg whites straight away, freeze them in an airtight container with the date on the label and use them within a month. They can also be kept in the fridge for several days.

PARIS ON A PLATE

The Little Paris Kitchen by Rachel Khoo is published by Michael Joseph,
price £20. To order a copy for the special price of £15.99, with free
p&p, call the YOU Bookshop on 0843 382 1111 or visit
you-bookshop.co.uk. The accompanying six-part series starts on BBC2
tomorrow at 8.30pm.